Tim: "More than twenty-five years after its premiere, Philip Glass'sAkhnatenfinally made its way to the West Coast in a production by Long Beach Opera that was clever, low-budget and satisfying (seen Mar. 19)."

Brian at Out West Arts got it right: "But like it or not, Glass’Akhnatenis indeed very much an opera and nearly a quarter of a century after its debut, it arrived on the West Coast for the first time in a complete form."

So did Mark Swed: "But none of that could lessen the significance of the first full-scale production in Southern California of a major opera by America’s best-known and most influential opera composer, erasing a shocking cultural omission."

The press release for LBO's Akhnaten took appropriate credit for this production as the first West Coast production that was fully staged and used Glass's original orchestration.